Ludwig Mies van der Rohe transferred his experience as an architect to the classroom, not only spreading his architectural philosophy, but also having students participate in his own search processes on many occasions. This article seeks to shine light on the figure of Vera Jansone, the first woman who graduated from the master’s programme of the Illinois Institute of Technology under Mies, in 1952, and her master’s thesis, hidden until now, entitled “An Art’s Club”.
The analysis will expand on the two most important aspects of Jansone’s thesis, function and structure. Jansone’s project is not only the sole approach to the functional typology of an Arts Club under Mies, it also contains an analysis of the structural alternatives that make its construction possible.
In consideration of the number and content of graduate theses on art centres, it posits that Jansone’s thesis represents a fundamental part of the search process towards structural clarity led by Mies which continued to be pursued by the next generation of architects at IIT.